Homemade Ricotta Cheese

This is a traditional Sicilian recipe from one of our valued customers, Jackie, who has spent years perfecting her ricotta.

Ingredients:

1 x 750ml bottle Made by Cow Cold Pressed Raw Milk

1 small tub plain greek style yogurt

50 ml strained freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp Celtic sea salt

Small pinch nutmeg

Implements needed:

Heavy based saucepan

Strainer

Enough cheesecloth / muslin cloth (or a dedicated tea towel that has no floral smells in it) boiled in clean water for 5 minutes before using.

Wooden spoon

Method:

1. Gently heat milk, yogurt, salt and pinch of nutmeg in saucepan over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.

2. When fine bubbles start to appear on the surface and it looks like a creamy top skin, stir constantly until the milk gently simmers. Keep stirring for about 1 minute at the simmer (don’t let it boil up too rapidly, gentle is best). This is where the milk proteins change - ready for curdling into cheese!

3. Take off the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. This step improves the yield.

4. Add lemon juice. Stir it gently through, but don’t move it too much... just enough to get the lemon mixed through the milk.

5. Let it cool and curdle for approximately 1 hour.

6. Set up a strainer in your sink with the muslin cloth lining the strainer.

7. Pour the curdled milk mixture into the strainer to strain out the ricotta. Gently shake to get more liquid out.

8. Tie a loose knot in two opposite sides (back two, and front two) using the cloth corners, making little “handles” to thread the handle of the wooden spoon through. Make sure the mixture is still totally enclosed by the cloth or it will pour out of any gaps - rather than be squeezed out through the cloth itself.

9. Thread the handle of the spoon through the loops you knotted in the cloth, and gently twist to tighten the cloth around the mixture to squeeze out more liquid. Don’t screw the handle so tight that the ricotta comes out of the cloth pores, but squeeze just enough for the liquid to be forced out.

10. Let it sit in the “squeezed” cloth for another 30 minutes or so.

11. Put strained ricotta in an airtight container in the fridge, it will last a week if kept cold from this point on.

12. Enjoy!